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Assessment of water quality in surface waters of the Fayoum watershed, Egypt

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Abstract

This paper presents the first assessment study of the surface water quality in the Egyptian Fayoum Governorate (Province). A total of 42 water samples from irrigation and drainage canals as well as Lake Qarun were collected. Major ions, (semi-)metals, nutrients, salinity and microbiological parameters were examined. The results showed that the highest salinities and highest concentrations of Na+, K+, Ca2+, Mg2+, \({\text{SO}}_{4}^{2 - }\), Cl− and δ18O were recorded in Lake Qarun due to up-concentration by evaporation. The highest concentrations of Al, Ba, Cr, Co, Cu, Ni, Fe and Mn were recorded in drainage waters. Tracking the fate of contaminants through sources–sink pathways helped to determine the potential sources of pollution. The highly impacted sites were located close to point sources of pollution such as sewage water treatment plants. Water used as drinking water supply has higher levels of Al and it can be harmful. High levels of microbiological contamination were recorded in irrigation and drainage waters, which therefore might cause water-borne diseases. Improper disposal of sewage or on-site sanitation tank overflowing into these waters is the main cause of microbiological contamination. Drainage and irrigation waters generally have high salinities resulting in soil salinization and degradation. Lake Qarun, a closed saline and alkaline lake, acts as the reservoir for left-over drainage waters. The results show that the lake has a self-cleaning system where most of the (semi-)metals carried by drainage waters are totally adsorbed on the lake sediments. Therefore, Lake Qarun is playing an important role in the environmental balancing in the Fayoum Governorate.

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Acknowledgments

We thank all staff members working at the Qarun Protected Area in the Fayoum Depression for their invaluable help during the field work and sample collection. The authors are very grateful to the Lappeenranta University of Technology (Finland) for providing financial support to this study. Deep gratitude to the Egyptian Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research for the granted scholarship. We thank our anonymous reviewers for their helpful input to improve the paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Green Chemistry, LUT Chemistry Department, Lappeenranta University of Technology, Sammonkatu 12, 50130, Mikkeli, Finland

    Mahmoud S. M. Abdel Wahed, Christian Wolkersdorfer & Mika Sillanpää

  2. Geology Department, Faculty of Science, Beni-Suef University, Beni-Suef, Egypt

    Mahmoud S. M. Abdel Wahed, Essam A. Mohamed & Mohamed I. El-Sayed

  3. Centre National de Recherche en Sciences des Matériaux, Technopole Borj Cedria, B.P.73, 8027, Soliman, Tunisia

    Adel M’nif

  4. Tshwane University of Technology (TUT), Private Bag X680, Pretoria, 0001, South Africa

    Christian Wolkersdorfer

Authors
  1. Mahmoud S. M. Abdel Wahed
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  2. Essam A. Mohamed
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  3. Christian Wolkersdorfer
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  4. Mohamed I. El-Sayed
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  5. Adel M’nif
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  6. Mika Sillanpää
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Correspondence to Mahmoud S. M. Abdel Wahed.

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Abdel Wahed, M.S.M., Mohamed, E.A., Wolkersdorfer, C. et al. Assessment of water quality in surface waters of the Fayoum watershed, Egypt. Environ Earth Sci 74, 1765–1783 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-015-4186-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-015-4186-0

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